In Re Mata

OPINION

DAVID PURYEAR, Justice.

This case presents a cautionary tale illustrating the dangers of private, informal adoptions in which the legal procedures set out in the family code are not followed, leaving both natural parents and would-be adoptive parents open to possible heartache. A private adoption such as this one, while a joyous possibility, can be fraught with risks for everyone involved. The birth mother is faced with the need to make the most difficult of decisions — to forever surrender her parental rights and allow another family to adopt and raise her child — and it is important…